Turner's Oxford

A wide-ranging public engagement programme which focused on J.M.W. Turner's oil painting of Oxford's High Street, featuring projects with young people and with homeless artists.

Turner’s Oxford was an extensive public engagement programme focusing on J.M.W. Turner's oil painting of The High Street, Oxford. 

Piercing the Sky was a collaborative project with the CRISIS homeless charity in 2016, supporting members to learn about art and to produce two exhibition pieces, displayed at the Old Fire Station and the Ashmolean Museum. Piercing the Sky was an installation by homeless artists based in Oxford made in collaboration with artist Jon Lockhart. Beginning with Turner’s iconic painting The High Street (1810), then recently acquired by the Ashmolean Museum, the artists reflected on Turner's work and their own experiences to capture what life is like in contemporary Oxford.

Turner’s High Street was a young people’s project, working with students from Oxford Spires Academy in East Oxford, to explore Turner’s masterpiece in painting, photography & 3D modelling.

Banner image: Crisis member cutting up High Street / Jon Lockhart